Daca e vreo problema ca e in engleza se poate sterge de aici, dar cum jocul foloseste intens engleza si e destinat jucatorilor care stiu engleza, sper sa nu fie o problema daca-l postez si aici
Review-ul original se afla aici
Calitatea pozelor nu e tocmai superba, am un aparat destul de slab si lumina proasta in casa dar m-am descurcat cu ce am avut
Sunt deschis la orice critici, si poate pe viitor voi mai scrie reviewuri, in romana
Introduction
2 months ago I found BGG.
I was looking for a quick to play economic game, that had a bit amount of luck but that had a lot of strategies, with lots of replayability and that plays well in both 2 and 4 players.
I've looked at dozens of games but this was my first pick and I don't regret it one bit.
Dominion Intrigue is an expansion for Dominion but it's also a standalone game.
Components
There's a rulebook and 500 playing cards
I was really impressed by the insert, it's nice and functional, keeps the cards nicely laid out for a very quick setup.
This is a game that it's quick to setup but takes longer to put the cards back in the box
The artwork on the cards is very beautiful
Here's a breakdown of the 500 cards:
130 basic Treasure cards
60 Copper cards
40 Silver cards
30 Gold cards
48 basic Victory cards
24 Estate cards
12 Duchy cards
12 Province cards
258 Kingdom cards
10 each of Baron, Bridge, Conspirator, Coppersmith, Courtyard, Ironworks, Masquerade, Mining Village, Minion, Pawn, Saboteur, Scout, Secret Chamber, Shanty Town, Steward, Swindler, Torturer, Trading Post, Tribute, Upgrade, Wishing Well
12 each of Duke, Great Hall, Harem, Nobles
30 Curse cards
26 Randomizer cards (one of each Kingdom card and one blank)
7 blank cards (to create your own Kingdom card)
1 Trash pile card(used to mark the Trash pile)
Card breakdown:
The Kingdom cards can act like:
Victory cards(included with the basic victory cards and curse):
Treasure cards(included with the basic treasure cards):
Action cards:
Reaction card:
Theme
Most people agree the theme is pasted on, but some people do like the theme. For example when I start explaining the game I go like 'these are the money, these are VP etc' and then my girlfriend stops me and starts to explain that the deck represents a dominion, and that your dominion starts poor and that you build your kingdom stone by stone and get lots of gold and people and then you gain the victory.
Gameplay
Setup
The piles of basic treasure cards, basic victory cards and the curse cards are put in the middle of the table. 10 piles of Kingdom cards are added (these are selected randomly with the randomizer cards or are selected by the players)
Each player receives 7 Copper cards and 3 Estate cards and places them face down in his playing area to form his deck. Each player draws 5 cards from his deck
Turn Overview
There are 3 phases to each turn:
-Action phase
-Buy phase
-Clean-up phase
Action phase
The player may play one(and only one) action from his hand and follows the instructions written on it.
Some of the most common terms used on the Action cards are:
+X Actions - the player may play additional Action cards from his hand
+X Cards - the player draws X cards from his deck
+Coin X - the player has X additional coins to spend in the Buy phase
+1 Buy - the player may buy one additional card in the Buy phase
Discard - the player discards cards from his hand to his discard pile
Trash - the player trashes a card, places it on the trash pile, not his discard pile
Some action cards are Attack cards, these are cards that affect the other players. In response to an attack, a player can play a reaction card immediately (out of turn)
Buy phase
The player may gain one(and only one) card from the supply by paying its cost. To do so he adds up all the coin values on his treasure cards and the coin values gained in the action phase. He may buy more than 1 card only if he gained the ability in the action phase
Clean-up phase
All cards played and bought this turn should go in the discard pile and then the player draws a new hand of 5 cards
Game end
The game ends at the end of any player's turn when
-the supply pile of Province cards is empty
-3 supply piles are empty
Players count their victory points (VP), the player with the most VP wins
Sample turn
5+ players
If you have the first Dominion game, by combining the basic Treasure cards you can play the game with more than 4 players, although there will be a bit of downtime in that case
Strategy
Although the goal of the game is to have the most VP, the basic Victory cards are useless in a player's turn, they're basically one less card to play in the Action phase or Buy phase
So the basic strategy is to first acquire Treasure and Actions and then when the end game approaches buy the Victory cards.
The startup hand is weak, it contains 3 useless cards for the beginning of the game and 7 Copper, a currency that doesn't buy you much.
As you buy more and more better cards one strategy involves thinning the deck, trashing the not-so-good cards so that the frequency with which the better cards appear in your hand increases.
Action cards are good, they give you better rewards in general than the treasure cards but the problem is that if you have 2 or more action cards in hand, you can only play one of them.
So if you want to play with more actions you will have to buy cards that give you +Actions, with them you can create some nice combos where you play multiple Action cards in a row, drawing cards, gaining +Coins and +Buys all in the same turn
To sum up:
-in the beginning buy Action cards and Treasure cards; later buy the Victory cards
-the beginning of the game is the best time to trash some of the starting cards, whenever possible
-don't buy too many actions without +Actions and try to buy cards that work well together towards obtaining a lot of coins in a turn
Conclusions
Pros
-very easy to learn: I've played the game with several people who were new to boardgames and they've picked up immediately not only the rules but the strategy aswel
-easy to setup: the cards are already divided in the insert, all it takes is 2-3 minutes and you're good to go
-good replayability: there are 25 kingdom cards, you only select 10 per game, there's a lot of combinations
-feels like another game: depending on the combinations the game changes a lot, you can have a multiplayer solitaire when there are no Attack cards in play and everyone is maximising their kingdom or you can have a very cutthroat game with lots of attack cards where every turn people get curses in hand or trash good cards
-scales well: very enjoyable with any number of players
-quick play time: once you know the cards you can play a game in 15 minutes, and it doesn't get boring when playing multiple games in a row
-lots of very good expansions: if and when you get bored of the kingdoms, no problem, you can get an expansion and the game will feel very different
Cons
-the theme: I explained earlier that some people like the theme but most just think about the coins and victory points without thinking that they're building a kingdom
-lots of shuffling: I don't find this to be too bad as it gives you an excellent opportunity to talk to the other players during this time. But there's a LOT of shuffling in this game and most people chose to sleeve their cards for this reason
Since I bought this game I've bought many other boardgames but it still remains my #1 game, I love to play it with my girlfriend and I love to play it when I have people over.
Although I didn't try Dominion, from what I've read about the game, for new players I'd recommend starting with this one
